Cuomo To Campaign For House Candidates, Still No Word From Obama

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be traveling tomorrow to several of the state’s battleground House races, stumping for Reps. Kathy Hochul, Louise Slaughter and Tim Bishop, along with Democratic challenger Dan Maffei.

The announcement, which came during an interview on Fred Dicker’s Talk-1300 radio show, comes as Cuomo ramps up his campaigning efforts with 12 days to go until Nov. 6.

“I’ll be doing quite a bit of it in the coming weeks,” Cuomo said of hitting the trail.

Cuomo this week appeared at a fundraiser for the House Majority PAC at the request of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who also attended.

He also endorsed this week two vulnerable incumbents – Bishop of Long Island and Rep. Bill Owens in the North Country.

(Owens and his Republican opponent Matt Doheny will debate at 7 p.m. on YNN in Albany, Watertown and Syracuse. The debate will also be streamed online at YNN.com).

The governor, a Democrat who has worked across the aisle with state Senate Republicans and even formally endorsed one for re-election (Sen. Steve Saland), has sought to stake out a decidely post-partisan image for himself since he was elected nearly two years ago.

He has rarely made out-of-state trips, and when he does, it’s usually just for a day.

Cuomo is very cognizant that any overt political acts could both spell the end of his working relationship with the Senate GOP and drive the conversation that he wants to run for president in 2016.

So far, Cuomo has not hit the hustings for President Obama, though he said this morning that he may travel to battleground states like Ohio or Virginia to campaign for his re-election.

Cuomo also insisted that when he does campaign, there won’t be anything said that’s out of ordinary, comparing a potential stump speech to the unusually partisan speech he gave to the New York Democratic delegation in Charlotte.

“But nothing different than what I’ve been saying… I’m basically on standby,” Cuomo said of his pending surrogacy status. “I’ve done this before.”